It’s about to start – the student blogging challenge
It’s been nearly four months since the last student blogging challenge finished. We had students from 15 countries taking part with either their own blogs or as part of a class blog. In total over 1000 students were writing posts, making conversations through comments and getting to know students and classes around the world.
Well, 6th September 2009, the next challenge will be starting. But there is a difference. There will actually be two different challenges running at the same time. You can take part in one of them or both of them, your choice.
Original image: ‘Global Player’
by: Dani Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
The first one is the BB challenge – Better Bloggers. This will be for students who are fairly new to blogging and are still setting up their blog with their avatars and widgets. They may have written a few posts and left comments on their friends’ blogs.
The second one is the BC challenge – Better Commenters. Students who have already taken part in a blogging challenge will find this more to their taste. They will be looking at how they write comments, whether they are trying to continue conversations through comments and how to write posts that invite lots of comments.
If you can’t wait until 6th September for the first challenge to be posted, then head over to “The Edublogger” where Sue Waters is running a competition where you could win one year supporter status for your blog with Edublogs. Check out one post that has already won one of the prizes. Lauren took part in our challenge earlier this year.
So have you decided to take part? Then fill in the registration form below and hit the submit button. Then keep watching this blog for the first posts on 6th September.
August 23, 2009@ 10:27 pm
Glad to see there will be another challenge this year. My kids start late so we probably won’t register until the 7th.
August 25, 2009@ 4:30 am
Hello Miss Waytt,
I am an EFL teacher in Madeira, Portugal. Here school will only start on the 21st of September. I’ll need some time to talk to my students and explain what’s expected of them. Can we still register for the challenges in October?
August 25, 2009@ 6:26 pm
G’day Alexandra,
You can start the challenges whenever it suits you. Many schools are on holidays at different times. The challenges will all be in one spot, see the pages above my avatar, and you can do them in any order. They are just challenges to help students with their blogging.
August 25, 2009@ 10:57 pm
Thank you for the swift reply Miss Waytt. I have subscribed to the RSS feed so I’ll keep an eye on what’s going on and we will register as soon as we can.
Cheers.
August 26, 2009@ 9:46 am
Not sure if my son’s school/teachers are participating, but I’m an educator and would like him to do this. Do you require that participants do this through their classes? Or can he participate on his own?
August 26, 2009@ 5:54 pm
Cassy,
As long as his teacher knows he is participating and you, his parent, have given him permission, then it is OK for him to join in.
August 26, 2009@ 6:04 pm
Hope we can keep up with this.
August 26, 2009@ 6:42 pm
Hi Lee,
Because you are writing on a wikispace, other students won’t be able to leave comments on your pieces of writing. I will try to work out some way for them to leave a comment here that I can then copy across to your wikispace.
September 1, 2009@ 12:18 pm
Congratulations on running such an innovative educational experience.
All the best and good luck to the bloggers!
September 1, 2009@ 12:32 pm
Hi Sue,
Great to know the blogging challenges are back as they are such a great way to help students connect.
We start back on the 8th of September, and the class blog will be ready to go. The students won’t likely have their own blogs until the end of the month at the earliest.
I’m really looking forward to this–what an energizer it is for bloggers.
Thanks,
Jan
September 3, 2009@ 10:38 pm
Thanks for providing the challenge again. I have given this as an optional activity for my students. I hope even more will register. However, I would love to see how they all spelt my name!!! You would have got many variations! Glad you probably know who it is. Thanks again and look forward to sharing.
September 5, 2009@ 7:28 pm
Hi,
Thanks for your comment on our class blog, and thanks for offering this great opportunity. We can’t wait to get started!
September 6, 2009@ 1:51 pm
I am trying to convince the inhabitants of Room 12 DeClairers that blogging is good! they are wiki users tried and true. We have the blog… we have been working on feedback … just need and audience… Please critique, prompt and nag! Their blog is student run and I am simply an observer! Cheers – Mrs Bee
September 7, 2009@ 6:42 am
My class ( Mr. Barrett’s) has a goal to get 2,000 blog hits by the end of the year. So to help us reach that goal please go to barrettb.edublogs.org . Thanks!
Sincerly
Madison
September 9, 2009@ 11:51 pm
This sounds like a wonderful opportunity! Mentioned it on my blog today so hopefully you’ll get some additional teachers and students from PA, NJ, DE and KY!
September 10, 2009@ 8:18 am
How about opening this competition to another level? As a college student, I am very new to SNS (in the past week, I’ve started Tweeting, blogging, and have established a MySpace page!), and part of my final project in design class will be developing my blog page. Since this is an educational effort, I don’t think we “old” folks should be discriminated against, do you?
September 10, 2009@ 10:20 am
Gregory,
As long as you are a student then you can join in the challenge. There are already students aged 17+ registered but as the activities relate to anyone beginning blogging or wanting to improve their commenting, then the challenge is really suitable for everyone.
September 10, 2009@ 8:45 pm
Terrific! I’ll be signing up later, but you can count me in!
September 16, 2009@ 8:36 pm
I can’t wait i’m so excited
:D:D:D
September 28, 2009@ 7:41 pm
I’m gonna show all you youngun’s how it’s done!
Don’t let me get away with it. Get to work and do your best! Good luck to each of us!
September 30, 2009@ 11:04 am
Hello from Thailand,
I submitted my name, url, and location when signing up for the edublog challenge. Got this page with the message: “So have you decided to take part? Then fill in the registration form below and hit the submit button. Then keep watching this blog for the first posts on 6th September.” But I don’t see any registration form, only a Google docs sign in/up window.
Thanks,
John Kenney
November 2, 2009@ 3:42 pm
I’m just setting up my students with blogs, on edublog. Is it too late to join the challenge? They are 5th graders in the US.
Thanks
Ms. G
November 10, 2009@ 6:00 am
Any chance you’ll be doing another blogging challenge? I had a great time.
December 1, 2010@ 9:19 pm
Hey,I suggest to my students to take participate . Do you require that participants do this through their classes? Or can he participate on his own?
December 3, 2010@ 9:31 pm
G’day,
The challenge has now moved to a different blog. The next challenge will start in March 2011. Students can take part on their own or as part of a class blog.